gauvins

Saw this Kickstarter on my feed. Could be interesting. Claims to inflate 16 bicycle tires @ 40 PSI, includes a gauge and doubles as 12000mAh battery bank. Priced at less than the sum of individual devices.

veganbikes

Ehhh I don't mess with that stuff. If a product is good bring it to market if you need to find strangers to fund your product before you can bring anything to market maybe you aren't quite ready yet. I guess the whole millennium thing is to just have people give them money because they had an idea at some point. Not really for me. Plus I like my regular pump. I guess for short trips an inflator is cool but I don't want another device to charge.

CliffordK

CliffordK

It isn't something that I would personally use on the road. 3 minutes to pump up a car tire, and capacity for 8 tires is ambitious. Some of my vehicle tires go up to about 100 PSI and have a fair amount of volume.

I believe 1.2 lbs is heavier than my mini pump that I carry. And I know the mini pump is almost 100% bomb proof (although I have broken a few).

I'd hate to be 30 miles from civilization and discover my battery pump was out of juice.

If functional, it might be handy for around the shop or in a vehicle. Although, even for that, many electric cordless tool manufacturers are now making pumps that use the tool batteries, so you just need to stock your cordless tool batteries.

CliffordK

Amp Hour is a bad measurement as the capacity is based on Amps + Volts.

I have a 12 AH x 20V tool battery right here, and the thing is mighty hefty.

Perhaps they have 12 AH x 3.6V which would be about 1/6 the size. It might pump up a few tires.

gauvins

Totally agree. Wh would be more useful.

WRT use case. It would probably be foolish not to carry a traditional pump on tour. But it looks like this thing might be just a bit heavier/larger than a comparable battery bank. This + the gauge... Interesting.

CliffordK

Some compact pumps have gauges. But you can carry an inflation gauge.

Personally I go by what feels right. Thumb gauge.

On one ride that took me over a very rough gravel road, I let out air from the tires. Felt the wheel bottoming out and put a little back in. No idea what the actual pressure was.

Yan 

Topeak Road Morph has a gauge. I've been using the same one for almost 15 years.

​​​​​​This Kickstarter is a scam. These portable air compressors have been available from China for years. A quick Google search showed me one that costs just $37. Over on Amazon there is a Xiaomi branded one being sold for $50. Xiaomi is a legit major brand over in China with an excellent reputation.

This Kickstarter's "early supporter price" is $55. It's just the same guts as any of the other ones. Probably costs less than $10 to manufacture. Rest is marketing, logistics, and profit.

gauvins

Well, I can't tell if this is a scam or not. What I can say is that i'd never carry a Xiaomi pump. The Kickstarter linked, however, doubles as a battery bank. Simple circuitry upgrade.

Not clear if it's worth the money. Won't fit inside my saddle bag (so not useful for commuting). But I have plenty of luggage space on tour. So... Boils down 545g for 12 500 mAh vs 250 for a 10 000 mAh bank... But the battery bank won't inflate my tire.

Yan 

You don't need to worry about the quality of the Xiaomi pump. It has 4.5 out 5 starts from 32,000 Amazon reviews. Apparently it's an amazing product. The design is a copy of the early iPods from 20 years ago haha.

https://www.amazon.com/MI-Portable-C.../dp/B08115Y2FY

Nevertheless, I wouldn't feel comfortable trusting an electronic device for such a critical item. Single point of failure, no backup. Better to keep it simple.

grolby

Heavier than a frame pump, too. And the battery runs down pretty fast on these pumps, so if you use them to inflate tires, you’ll find yourself running low on juice to charge other devices. I’ve basically switched over to cordless electronic inflators for my home bike workshop but as a bike-portable option when weight, packability and practicality matter they don’t make sense IMO. CO2 inflator and a frame or mini pump is the preferred bike carry setup.